Abstract:
This paper argues for a shift in tourism research that challenges models which prioritise
commodified tourism experiences over alternative decommodified products. We
feel the distinction between commodified and decommodified tourism can be demonstrated
using Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) as a case study. Commodifying
processes occur when the final outcome is defined as the economic use-value of a
product or service. Current directions in tourism research often favour the pursuit of a
commodified tourism product in the search for increased efficiency and global profits
using research paradigms that narrowly pursue this direction. We argue that the negative
impacts of such a trajectory restrict our ability to understand and analyse the
tourism experience requiring decommodifying actions in tourism research to move
forward; these we feel are best informed by alternative theoretical and philosophical
perspectives that include feminism, ecocentrism, community development and poststructuralism.
NGOs are used in this paper to provide an example of how the broadening
of research philosophies allows access to approaches that pursue
decommodification in tourism as they move beyond the almost exclusive pursuit of
industry profits and place social, cultural and ecological value on local environments
and economics.
